October 1548 A.D. Calvin writes Edward Seymour to suppress English subversives
October 1548 A.D. Calvin writes Edward Seymour to
suppress subversives
(We
would add that by this time, Calvin was pretty much done with Luther’s tyranny,
abusiveness and suspiciousness of the Swiss Reformed Churches; even Melanchthon
was troubled by Luther's abusiveness; we think that Lutheranism per se was done
in England by the 1540s, but this needs multiple tests. We think Dr. Robert
Barnes was probably the last vocal Lutheran in England; he was murdered in
1540)
John Calvin Encourages Lord Protector Edward Seymour
to Suppress Subversives
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During
his protectorate, Seymour—who became the Duke of Somerset—worked to abolish images and other Roman
Catholic influences on worship. Augustus Toplady writes that Somerset was, "in concert with
Cranmer, the main instrument in conducting the reformation."[1]
On October 1548, John Calvin wrote him the following to encourage his efforts
at reformation, particularly in suppressing subversives:
That I may address myself
more particularly to you, most noble lord, I hear that there are two kinds of
subversives [in England] who connive against the king and the head of
the realm. There are first demented
folk who in the name of the Gospel stir up disorder and secondly those who are hardened in the superstitions
of Anti-Christ. Both deserve to
be coerced by the avenging sword which the Lord has committed to you because they rise up not only against the
king but against God Himself, who has set the king upon his throne and
installed you as Protector not only of his person but of his kingly majesty. [2]
Notes
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[1] Augustus Montague
Toplady, The Works of Augustus Toplady: A New Edition, Complete in One
Volume (London: J. Chidley, 1837), 159.
[2] Cited in Roland H.
Bainton, The Age of the Reformation (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold
Company, 1956), 138.
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